


Greyscale

by SkyGem



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Moral Ambiguity, More tags to be added, more character tags to be added - Freeform, no all for one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9161158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyGem/pseuds/SkyGem
Summary: When Midoriya Izuku unexpectedly meets a kindred spirit in the form of Sawada Tsunayoshi at the Yuuei entrance exam, he's beyond excited. But his tentative friendship is crushed before it can even truly begin when All Might warns Izuku to stay away from the boy with the too sweet smile and the too big eyes and the face that looks like it couldn't hurt a fly. Tsuna is supposedly Izuku's greatest enemy - the final boss he needs to defeat so everyone can have their happily ever after. But the more Izuku learns about his new classmate, the more he begins to suspect that someone, somewhere, must have made a horrible mistake.





	1. Chapter 1

 

"I'm against it."

Reborn's voice was curt, unhappy, with a hint of a growl that would send many a person fleeing with their tail between their legs, fearful for having angered the hitman.

Tsuna, however, merely sighed in resignation.

"I know you are, Reborn," he said, looking up at his tutor with a sad expression.

Reborn looked away, knowing that if he were to see that mournful expression on his ward's face, he would crumble, and his disapproval would be overpowered by guilt.

He _knew_ how excited Tsuna was, how he was looking forward to starting high school, how it was all he'd been able to talk about for weeks now. But he simply could not bring himself to approve, and he knew how it must hurt Tsuna for him to not be on his side.

Reborn was always on Tsuna's side.

It was an unspoken rule, a law of the universe.

No matter what Tsuna did, even if he destroyed their entire Family, Reborn would be on his side.

So how foreign must it feel, to not have Reborn's approval in this one matter?

Reborn grit his teeth, steeling his heart.

"You know how the heroes feel about your quirk," he said, voice harsh as he took his student by the shoulders. "They will – _everyone will_ – be waiting for you to screw up, waiting for an excuse to kick you out or arrest you."

"I know," replied Tsuna, reaching up to lay his hands on top of Reborn's. "I'll be alright," he assured his surrogate father. "I promise. Just…try and trust that you raised me well enough to look after myself?"

The response was immediate.

"I do trust you," replied Reborn, eyebrows drawing together and lips twisting downwards. "It's them I don't trust. UA is very thorough when it comes to who they hire – there's no way we'll be able to plant any of our Famiglia members there. You'll be constantly surrounded by enemies."

Tsuna laughed, dutifully ignoring the slight tremble of Reborn's fingers where they were still resting on his shoulders.

"And how is that any different from the mafia?" he asked, smiling cheekily up at the hitman. "I'd even go so far as to argue it's safer. These guys are _heroes_ , Reborn. They're not going to hurt one of their students. Especially one as loveable and harmless as me."

The last sentence succeeded in getting a startled snort of amusement out of Reborn, who cuffed Tsuna upside the head as he pulled away, trying to regain his composure.

"You know what? I tried my best," he said. "It's hardly my fault if you're too stubborn to see this is a terrible idea. Don't come crawling back to me when your plan comes crashing down around you."

They both knew that was bullshit.

Reborn would always be there to get Tsuna out of whatever shit he'd managed to dig himself into.

"Not gonna happen," Tsuna replied, cheekily. "You do know my guardians are attending too, right? Do you really need to be such a mothe-!"

Before he could even finish his sentence, he cut himself off with a squeak of surprise, jumping to the side as a bullet planted itself in the back of the sofa, exactly where he'd been sitting just seconds ago.

"What was that?" asked Reborn, smiling innocently down at his student.

"I-ah-um…nothing?" squeaked Tsuna, breaking into a cold sweat. "I, actually, uh, just remembered I have to…do stuff…in…some place. Okay bye!"

Reborn just watched him go, still with that odd smile on his face, only moving again when the door had swung shut behind his student.

Running a hand through his hair, he rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window onto the front lawns of the Vongola HQ.

"Mother hen indeed," he muttered under his breath, letting out a huff of exasperation directed at himself.

* * *

"OI! The fuck you doing in the middle of the road, jackass?"

Startled, Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the harsh reprimand.

He spun around, body already tensing for impact as words of apology leapt to his lips.

But when his eyes landed on messy silver hair cut short and choppy around an obviously foreign face, and stormy grey-green eyes glaring at him with a ferocity surpassed even Kacchan's, Izuku felt his mouth go dry.

For a second, he almost found himself wishing it really had been Kacchan instead.

Then, as the foreigner boy opened his mouth to no doubt shout at Izuku again, a hand landed on his shoulder, and Izuku watched in interest as his whole body tensed.

"Hayato," said the owner of the hand in a warning tone.

He had messy brown hair that stuck up every which way, and warm brown eyes of caramel. Unlike his friend, he was obviously Japanese.

He was also a good few inches shorter than the boy named Hayato.

"What did I say about picking fights with people at the entrance exams?" he asked.

And Izuku watched in disbelief as Hayato immediately averted his gaze, a sheepish expression crossing his face.

"That I shouldn't do it…?" he said, voice barely audible.

"And what were you doing just now?" wheedled the brunet.

"…I was picking a fight," Hayato admitted grumpily.

"So what do you say to the poor kid now?"

There was silence for a moment.

"Hayato..." the warning tone was back.

"I'm sorry," Hayato ground out, lips pulled into a pout and looking anywhere but at Izuku.

"Good boy!" replied the brunet, patting his friend on the head once before turning his million watt smile on Izuku. "I really hope he didn't frighten you too much. I promise he's not a bad guy. He just…gets a bit carried away sometimes."

"I-i-it's okay!" insisted Izuku, waving the apology off with exaggerated movements. "You don't have to apologize! No harm done!"

The guy's smile widened just a tad, and he bowed his head slightly.

"I'm glad there are no hard feelings," he said, sounding so genuinely relieved, Izuku couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Oh! I think we ought to be going now," the brunet said just then, as if suddenly remembering something. "Good luck on the exam! I hope you do well!"

And before Izuku had even had a chance to reply, the boy had dragged Hayato off into the building where their exams would be held.

Izuku watched them go, and found himself hoping that, just maybe, he'd found a potential friend already.


	2. Chapter 2

"Welcome one and all to my live show! Everybody say HEEEEY!"

The voice that spoke was so deafeningly loud, it wasn't heard so much as _felt_ , in the rumble of the ground and vibrations in one's chest.

And somehow, that made the ensuing silence more pathetic.

But when he continued, the speaker didn't seem disheartened in the least, sounding just as upbeat and cheerful as before.

"I've got shivers down my spine, too, listeners!" he called. "Alright, examinees. I'm gonna give you the low-down on how this'll go down! Are you ready!?"

Tsuna was practically vibrating in his seat.

"Oh my gosh, guys! Look! It's an actual pro hero! This is the first time I've seen one in person!" he babbled, pulling on Chrome's sleeve, sitting to the left of him.

"Well, yeah," replied Takeshi from her other side with a chuckle. "That's because any villain with half a brain knows not to stir up any trouble on Vongola territory. Heroes never really needed a reason to come anywhere near us."

"Umm, sorry to interrupt, boss," Chrome cut in with a gentle hand on her friend's arm. "But shouldn't we be listening to the sensei? He's explaining the rules of the exam."

"Eh, it's nothing too important," drawled out Hayato, who was sprawled lazily on the seat to Tsuna's right. "Seems like the exam's exactly the same as when Ryohei-nii and the others did it in the past. Some kinda Mario knockoff. They have a buncha different "villains" around the battlefield with different point values, and we have to beat them to get as many points as possible."

"Aww, does that mean none of us will be in the same battlefield then?" asked Tsuna, crossing his arms with a pout. "You gonna be okay alone, Chrome?"

She smiled sweetly back at him.

"Nothing to worry about, boss! We've probably got more fighting experience than all of the other examinees here!"

"I still don't see why they couldn't have just let us in on recommendation," said Hayato with a sneer. We've got way more important stuff to do with our time. Reborn-san is going to be arriving in Japan _tonight_ and we still need to prepare that report for him about the state of our Japan HQ."

"Come on Hayato, don't be such a sourpuss. We're lucky they're even letting us do the exam in the first place. We still have plenty of time to finish the report before Reborn-san gets here! And even if we don't finish it, all we have to do is point Tsuna's puppy eyes at him, and we're good as gold!"

* * *

Izuku was pretty sure he was seconds away from throwing up.

His hands were shaking horribly, and no matter how hard he tried to calm down, he only succeeded in riling himself up even more.

And really, it didn't help at all that the other examinees all seemed completely relaxed and raring to go.

_How the hell were they all so confident?_

Running a shaky hand through his messy black curls, his eyes darted once again in the direction of his fellow examinees, and that's when he noticed her.

A petite girl with light brown hair styled in a short bob stood just a few feet away, her eyes closed as she tried to psyche herself up for the exam.

Izuku brightened, recognizing her as the girl with the anti-gravity quirk, who had helped him when he'd nearly tripped earlier.

Thinking that perhaps he'd feel a little calmer by seeing a friendly face, Izuku was about to walk over to her to thank her for her help earlier, when another girl beat him to it.

She was even tinier than the brunette, with delicate limbs and milky white skin. Her hair was a vivid purple that matched her eyes, and she looked about as harmless as a baby.

But Izuku hesitated to approach the two.

He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something about the girl that seemed to put him on edge. His instincts were screaming at him to stay away from her, telling him that she was bad news, that she was dangerous.

The two girls were chatting about something, giggling quietly to each other, but then, as if she seemed to sense his eyes on her, the purple-haired girl turned slightly, and lifted her gaze to meet Izuku's.

Izuku felt a chill run down his spine as he noticed the eyepatch that covered her right eye, thoroughly creeped out by the silver skull that adorned it.

Suddenly, Present Mic's voice rang through the din over conversation around them.

"AAAAAND START!"

Startled, Izuku turned towards the source of the voice.

"What's the matter?" the Voice Hero called, from his vantage point atop a nearby building, from where he could see each of the battlefields. "There's no such thing as a countdown in a real battle! Run! RUUN! Consider the baton passed!"

"Eh?" asked Izuku, staring at him in confusion.

And while he was still trying to gather his wits, between one second and the next, the rest of his fellow examinees were off, running down the streets of the battlefield as if they had the devil himself on their tail.

"Crap," he muttered to himself, rushing off after the rest of the students and trying to quell the panic rising within him.

"Calm down," he urged himself, already feeling his heart about to burst out of his chest. "I've still got a chance! I can still do it!"

An image of All Might flashed through his mind, and immediately, he felt himself relax a little.

Right. His hero had his back. He had to work hard, so all of All Might's effort into training him didn't go to waste.

"I'm going to become a hero," he whispered to himself, still so intent on catching up to the other students and so focused on his mini own pep talk that he nearly jumped out of his skin as something came crashing through the wall next to him.

He slid to a stop, gaping.

"Target lock-on!" intoned the robot, swinging one of its arm-like appendages forward, and Izuku absently noticed the big white 1 painted on it. "Murder!"

Izuku froze in spot, his legs going weak in the face of the hostile robot.

_Why can't I move?_

He swallowed hard, curling his hands into a fist.

Before he could bring himself to move however, something long and green whipped past him, moving so fast he could barely see it.

And then, the next thing he knew, the robot was nothing more than a heap of scrap metal on the floor, surrounded by dark green vines as thick as Izuku's arms, and pretty white lotus flowers as big as his head.

He turned, mouth still agape, to see who had destroyed the robot so effortlessly.

And there she was again, the girl with the eyepatch.

Her face was expressionless, and she didn't seem even the least bit winded.

She regarded Izuku for a long moment, as if she didn't know what to make of him.

Then, with a nod of acknowledgement and a quick smile, she was off.

" _Six minutes, two seconds left~!"_


	3. Chapter 3

Toshinori sat, silent and unmoving, as he watched the mock battles unfolding in front of him on countless screens.

As he was not on the judging panel, he was free to focus most of his attention on his wayward young student. He knew he ought to be paying attention to all the children that he would potentially be teaching sometime in the near future, but he couldn't help but worry about young Midoriya.

Izuku definitely had an overflowing well of potential, but because the transfer of One for All had happened so last minute, he hadn't had a chance to practice with it, and Toshinori worried that it would hold him back.

Dimly, he could hear the ebb and flow of conversation around him as his colleagues discussed the examinees in approving tones. He tried to tune the conversations out, but as the same four names kept coming up again and again, he found his attention being drawn in another worrying direction.

Sawada Tsunayoshi. Gokudera Hayato. Yamamoto Takeshi. Dokuro Chrome.

It was plain for all to see that they were on a higher level than the rest of the examinees, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that they would, all four, be accepted into the school. They each had devastatingly powerful quirks, and a level of control over them that most adults twice their age hadn't even achieved yet.

They seemed the very picture of the perfect candidates.

And therein lay the problem.

In the interest of impartiality, none of the teachers on the judging panel had been made aware of the fact that the four children they were all looking upon with such approval actually belonged to the mob.

The only ones who knew about it were principal Nedzu, Recovery Girl, and Toshinori himself.

Normally, Toshinori would be more than willing to give a _child_ the benefit of the doubt, no matter what their background or who their parents; but after decades fighting crime as the number one hero in the world, Toshinori knew intimately the insidious nature of Italy's Vongola Famiglia.

Nine generations in and still going strong, they were one of the very few mafia families that had not only survived, but _thrived_ in this society so saturated with superheroes.

"You seem troubled," said a voice suddenly from near his elbow, and Toshinori flinched, turning a guilty expression upon the person sitting in the chair next to him, watching him with understanding glittering in his bright black eyes.

"I would think that I could count on you, of all people, to be on these children's side, Toshinori," said the principal, his voice gently chiding. "They still have room to learn and grow. With the right kind of guidance, perhaps they can leave behind their dark pasts, and walk towards a brighter future with the rest of our students."

Toshinori swallowed his protests.

Nedzu, who had been principal since before even Toshinori had attended UA decades ago, was one of the people Toshinori respected most in this world, and while Toshinori didn't share the principal's optimistic views about the Vongola children, he'd be damned if he didn't try his hardest to make his hopes a reality.

"Every child deserves a chance to be saved."

* * *

With a huff of relief, Chrome let her illusions collapse the moment she was sure the robots were all well and truly destroyed.

Her eyes screwed tightly shut, she reached up to rub at her temples, trying to stave off the tell-tale headache that pounded painfully at the base of her skull whenever she over-exerted herself with her quirk.

She knew that she should probably take it easy – her body was still healing from her latest surgery, and she knew she'd already managed to rack up enough points to pass the practical portion of the exam.

But just passing wasn't enough – she wanted ( _needed_ ) to be at the top of the leaderboard, along with her Boss and the other two. She needed to prove that she _deserved_ to stand on equal footing with them. She needed to make her boss _proud_ , even if it meant she'd be dealing with nausea and headaches for the next few days.

And so, taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again and called up her lotus illusions once more, already looking around for more robots to destroy.

Just as she was about to run off down another alley however, she heard a crash just a few blocks away, and the sound of panicked yells.

" _Run!"_

" _It's the gimmick!"_

" _Is this some kind of joke!?"_

Without even thinking, she spun towards the source of the confusion, already racing towards the commotion before her brain even had time to catch up with the situation.

The gimmick robot that would rampage when crowded. It was bigger and far more dangerous than the rest of the "villain" bots that were roaming the streets of the battle centre. It was also worth zero points.

She knew that it would be pointless to destroy it but she couldn't help but be worried about the other examinees. They were all innocent children after all, and while she knew the school board wouldn't let anything happen to the students, she still couldn't help but worry.

When the gigantic robot finally came into view, she saw that she was already too late.

The girl she had been talking to before the exam ( _Uraraka Ochako,_ _her mind helpfully supplied_ ) was stuck under a pile of rubble in the path of the rampaging robot, and another student ( _Midoriya Izuku – Reborn had made sure they would all recognize him on sight, given as they had good reason to believe that he was All Might's precious protégé)_ had already jumped into the fray to protect her.

Dashing forward, Chrome crouched down next to Uraraka, quickly checking to make sure she hadn't bumped her head. She had only just reached the girl when the sound of explosions radiated out from above her, and she moved quickly to send out thick ropes of lotus vines, weaving them into a sturdy net above them to keep the broken robot parts from falling onto her or her unconscious friend.

The searing bolt of pain at the base of her skull told her that the illusions wouldn't last much longer, so she hurried to pick Uraraka up bridal style, and managed to get them both away before her illusions collapsed right where they'd been just moments before, sending a dull thud of pain down her spine.

Chrome had only gotten them a few feet away when the sound of panicked screaming sounded from behind her, and she had to fight back a groan, wondering if she'd broken any mirrors recently. Just about anything that could possibly have gone wrong today, had gone wrong.

Resigning herself to spending the next few days bedridden, she carefully laid Uraraka on the ground and spun back towards the robot, where she immediately noticed Midoriya Izuku falling to his apparent death.

Taking a deep breath, Chrome gathered up the last of her strength, and sent out several large lotus flowers to catch Izuku, their soft, satiny petals sturdy enough to slow most of his momentum. It wasn't the most comfortable landing, and he would have a couple new bruises when he woke up, but no ( _new_ ) broken bones, at least.

Letting her lips curl into a relieved smile, Chrome finally let her eyes slip closed, and she slumped forward into oblivion.

Her last thoughts before she passed out were that she was not looking forward to her boss's lecture when she woke up.

* * *

Chiyo stood over the three unconscious examinees, her lips twisted into a worried frown.

The worst off, by far, seemed to be the young illusionist girl. She had only a few cuts and scrapes on her face and arms, but the brunt of the damage appeared to be internal, from the mottled red and purple bruising that peeked out from beneath her crop top.

Huffing out an exasperated breath, Chiyo gently smoothed back the girl's bangs, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. She'd exerted herself too much to heal completely, but Chiyo had managed to stop the internal bleeding for the moment.

Straightening out, she turned back towards the crowd of students behind her, and her eyes landed on her young apprentice, who was being uncharacteristically quiet as he worked through the examinees, using his quirk to heal the small scrapes and bruises they all sported.

"Sasagawa, child, come here!"

Sasagawa Ryohei: her protégé. He was a young first-year student who had earned his provisional license on his first try, without even breaking a sweat.

"Yes, sensei?" he asked, giving the student he had been treating a final pat on the head before turning to approach her, lips pulled back in that sunny smile that made his eyes scrunch closed.

As soon as he was close enough to see the girl on the floor next to her though, he froze in his tracks, the smile sliding off his face in record time.

" _Chrome!_ " he gasped, running over to crouch next to her and unashamedly pushing her top up to show the extent of the bruising on her stomach even as he moved his body to block the view from the other examinees.

His face was troubled as his fingers traced lightly over the skin of her abdomen.

"I have to get her to Dr. Shamal," he said, moving to lift her head gently off the floor with his right hand while his left sifted through her silky purple hair, checking to make sure she hadn't hit injured her head when she'd fallen. "Ahh, I _told_ her to take it easy today! Her body hasn't had a chance to fully heal from her surgery yet!"

Pushing her shirt back down over her stomach, Sasagawa slid an arm under her knees and rose smoothly with Chrome in his arms bridal style.

"Apologies, sensei," he said with a shallow bow in her direction. "I'll have to take my leave for today."

"Yes, yes, I understand," said Chiyo, waving him off. "I've stopped her bleeding for now, but she must be properly treated as soon as possible. You have those doctors of yours take good care of her, you hear?"

"Of course, sensei!" replied Sasagawa. "Will you be alright taking care of the rest of the students yourself?"

"And just what do you think I was doing all those years before you came along, young man?" she asked, turning a steely gaze on her student. "Run along now. I'll be just fine without you. These two are nowhere near as badly injured as your little friend there."

The grin she got from Sasagawa in reply to that was blinding.

"Of course, how could I have forgotten?" he asked. "I'll see you in school then, sensei!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed! I'm sooo sorry this is like…four days later than I told you guys it would be up. Forgive me? Since the first episode of s2 came out last Saturday, I was feeling inspired, and actually managed to find time to do some writing for this! Yay! Please do leave a comment, and also, hmu on my tumblr! My url is skygemspeaks, and I post lots of headcanons and aus for yuri on ice and bnha! I also have a lot of other fandoms, so feel free to come and fangirl with me in my box! I love being tagged in things!


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